First, there is music, which contains the power to create mood and evoke emotion. Second, there is message, which forms the structure of our belief systems and influences the quality of our relationships. Third, there is action, which is the ultimate reflection of our brain’s content.

If we can learn to use all three of these things well, I think we can find great hope for ourselves and the planet. A favorite song of mine “From a Distance.” sung by Bette Midler has two of these three elements. It combines music with message for a powerful effect—and it can also inspire YOU to act if YOU believe in its message. I love the lyrics, because they remind me where we are all going:

From a distance the world looks blue and green, and the snow-capped mountains white. From a distance the ocean meets the stream, and the eagle takes to flight. From a distance, there is harmony, and it echoes through the land.

I believe people should pay equal, if not more, attention to the fitness of their brain waves. I believe that behind almost every illness and every relationship problem lies some habit related to unhealthy brain waves. Healthier brain waves translate into healthier emotional states, which in turn create stronger bodies and happier lives.

Coming Full Circle

The shamans of the past, and perhaps those existing in the present, were essentially brain wave doctors. They did not have the scientific understanding of brain waves that we possess, but it is clear that their healing system was designed to stimulate healing power from within the ailing individual. Often this involved vigorously shaking the body or dancing frenetically until a deep state of trance was achieved.

Michael Winkclman, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University who investigates shamanistic practices, concludes that these healing practices work by integrating older (i.e., the brain stem) and younger (i.e., the prefrontal cortex) parts of the brain. He says, “Shamanistic healing practices achieve this integration by physically stimulating systematic brain wave—discharge patterns.”

One of my students, in fact, is a researcher in the area of bio-feedback, specializing in measuring brain activity through EEG machines. He was very skeptical about the claimed benefits of Brain Wave Vibration, like many other scientists might be. But he gave it a try anyway because he was suffering from a number of ailments and wanted to find a quick stress-relief exercise that could fit his schedule. After a few weeks of practice, his focus improved, his headaches disappeared, and his shoulder pain subsided. He is now thoroughly convinced that brain waves can be influenced through movement of the body.

It is also clear that even the kinds of thoughts we have can pertly affect our physical health. The effect of the mind on the body was demonstrated by scientists more than a hundred years ago. In one experiment, scientists showed take flowers to highly allergic people. Almost invariably, the subjects, not knowing that the flowers were fake, had allergic reactions when seeing the flowers (Sapolsky). And for centuries physicians have noted the placebo effect, in which a patient’s beliefs about a given medicine may create as much healing as the medicine itself. It stands to reason then that all sorts of negative thoughts and beliefs may have a detrimental effect on the body and that positive thoughts may assist in the healing process.

Natural health proponents agree that we are spending far too much time in the higher frequency beta and gamma waves, and too little time in the lower frequency waves. The higher frequency waves are associated with stress states, which in turn are associated with many mental and physical disorders.

Fortunately, people can learn to control their brain wave states for the improvement of mental and physical health. Eugene Peniston and Paul Kulkosky have shown that biofeedback, a method by which subjects are trained to control various biological functions, can be used to help people with alcoholism over¬come their addiction. Through biofeedback, these people were able to increase lower frequency alpha and theta brain waves, which are associated with a peaceful, meditative state of mind, while controlling higher frequency beta waves. This ability re¬sulted in less depression and fewer cravings for alcohol among the subjects.

But what does the brain stem have to do with all this? Your brain stem is like a hidden conductor of the great symphony that makes up the intricate systems of your body. Without am conscious direction from you, it sends out messages to the body, telling your heart how fast to beat, commanding your white blood cells to spring into action, directing your digestive system to go to work, and coordinating a myriad of other bodily functions that continuously support your health and well-being.

The role of the brain stem is essentially to maintain your state of equilibrium. The body is designed to maintain a consistent state of health. You could say that any prolonged disease represents lack of equilibrium in the body.

So then why do things sometimes break down? Occasionally it is because of invaders, like viruses and bacteria that the body is just not equipped to face.

Once you have really clarified for yourself your new identify, you must work diligently to stay true to it.

This is more easily said than done. There may be many forces at play that would like to redefine your new identity.

Some of those forces come from outside of you. There may be many people who are invested in having you act and think in the way that suits them.

Of course, if you go along with these forces, you are not managing your own brain at all.

You are letting someone else manage it for you. The most formidable opponent to your true identity, however, may come from within yourself. This is called your ego. Your ego is not a bad thing in itself; it is there to ensure your physical happiness in life. But your ego does not want you to take an unusual path because it is far less comfortable. From your egos point of view, it is far better for you to take a safe route in life that ensures basic security and status within society.

It is important to note that not all-empowering information is beneficial. Empowering information may help your true self, or it may simply build your ego, which is the product of your false self. For example, I could say to you, “You are smarter and better than everyone else in the world.” That is indeed empowering information. However, you can see how it is not information that will help you grow and improve yourself.

You must be wary of the ego as you choose information because it can mislead vou easily, even causing you to be offended by empowering information that will help you achieve your highest self. Disregard information that does not propel you toward your highest self. Learn to differentiate that which contributes to your true self from which appeals to you only on the egoistic level.

The essential difference between the psychiatric approach to a spiritual problem and the shamanic approach to a problem is that the former tries to solve the problem through rational understanding, while the latter accepts the ineffable nature of human existence. Modern psychology has developed many useful ways of dissecting and dinning a problem. Shamanic traditions, on the other hand, accept that a vast, incomprehensible universe exists within each person, and that total understanding is an impossible goal. That is why, as Keeney describes it, primitive cultures move the person into the mystery of life, rather than avoid it through rational understanding of things.

I am told that the word heal in English is derived from a word meaning “to make whole.” I believe that Brain Wave Vibration offers this sort of wholeness to practitioners. It is fine to seek a rational understanding of the problems that trouble you, but ultimately you will need to go beyond the rational to really get in touch with the vastness of your being. Within that vastness, you will find the eternal wisdom and healing that has always been yours from the beginning of time.

Ironically, the student who put so much weight on the outcome of the test has done little to help himself succeed. A mild stress response may have helped him perform better, but in this case it is too extreme, and he is caught in a state of imbalance.

Stress in and of it is not bad. The brain stem wants to create balance between the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the stress response, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of the rest-and-digest response. When our bodies are kept in a constant state of imbalance, disease is the likely result.

The part we have control over is the prefrontal cortex, the thinking part of the brain. To put it simply, people today think too much. The thinking brain is constantly sending messages that keep our bodies in a state of alarm, and they never have ample time to recover. The trick is to quiet the thinking mind and gain control over the content it produces so that the brain stem has a chance to coordinate the equilibrium that it exists to create.

Bradford Keeney has traveled the world seeking understanding of primitive healing customs. His conclusion, like mine, is that healing can be found through vibration, what he refers to as “shaking medicine.”

Through his work, Keeney has noticed commonality among the world’s many ancient native healing practices. All of them rely on the achievement of a deeply relaxed state, which is associated with low-frequency brain waves. This state can also be developed through the practice of meditation, which usually is achieved through complete stillness of mind and body. But in the most primitive cultures, this same state of relaxation is reached through ecstatic movement, such as dancing and shaking, rather than through physical stillness.

Keeney hypothesizes that this state of deep relaxation is what allows the subject to experience the healing effects. The thinking mind is quieted, allowing the healing powers of the brain stem to come into effect. I would contend that a similar state of deep relaxation is achieved through Brain Wave Vibration.